'I know... I know it's good,' she nodded, 'I know it's good. He's good. He wants to help people. ...I just... I don't want to lose him. I'm scared, 10K,' Sarah signed, tears springing to her eyes.
@glitteryssahotchner @glitterytenthousand @glitteryzompocalypse
‘You’re not going to lose him,’ 10K assured the girl, pulling her in for another hug.
Sarah nodded again as she wrapped her arms tightly around her brother and buried her face in his chest. He was one of the few people she completely trusted in her life, so if he said that Theo would be okay... Then he would be okay. ...Of course, she was still scared, but knowing she had 10K made her feel a little better. Stronger.
Steve smiled, fondly, at the boy as he comforted his younger sister. It reminded him a lot of growing up with a bunch of kids who almost all died at least once a year. It was nice.
'...Okay,' Sarah signed as she pulled away after a minute, 'I'm okay now, I think. ...Thanks, 10K. I'll... I'll go make sure Anna and Lee are okay.'
‘Okay,’ He gave the girl a small smile.
She returned his smile and nodded before running off to find her sister and her sister's girlfriend.
10K watched her go with a small, slightly sad smile, before he noticed his uncle giving him a fatherly smile, similar to the ones Doc would give him. "...What?" He asked, a littl awkward, though not defensive.
“... Nothin’,” Steve said, the little smile never leaving his lips.
"...Uh, I should check on my sister-- other sister. Addy. You can... Come, if you want." He was starting to loosen up a little with his uncle, despite his best efforts. So, if Steve wanted to get to know his life, then... Maybe he would let him.
“Uh... sure. I can-- I can come... if you want,” Steve nodded, not wanting to push his nephew into letting him come along, if he wasn’t okay with it. While still letting him know he would come, if it was okay with him.
10K hesitated a moment and then nodded, "...Yeah... Yeah, you can come." He was still a little apprehensive, but he wasn't going to get to know his uncle if he didn't spend time with him. And showing him his life was easier than sitting and talking.
“Okay,” Steve smiled, softly. He tried not to let it show, just how happy he was that 10K was giving him a window into his life.
The boy returned his smile and nodded once more, before leading his uncle out of the library and towards the chambers where he assumed Addy and George would still be, at least if George actually took his advice.
Steve hurried along beside 10K, “So... uh, your cousins-- my kids-- they’re gonna be here soon-ish. They’re on their way. They’re excited to meet you.”
"Yeah..." 10K said, "I, uh... I'm excited to meet them, too." That wasn't necessarily true, he was more nervous than excited. Mostly because he didn't know if he could trust anyone. But for now he was going to let his uncle think he was excited.
“You’ll love ‘em,” Steve said, giving the boy a smile.
10K just nodded again and returned the smile as the two approached Addy and George's room and knocked on the door.
The door opened to reveal George, holding a smiling Gwenny in her arms. "10K," she said, giving the boy a small smile, "Hey. ...Everything okay? Red and Sarge...?"
"They're okay," he nodded, returning the woman's smile as he was relieved she'd actually taken his advice, "Getting better. But they kicked me out for the day, so I figured I should check on you and Addy." It wasn't a lie, they had basically kicked him out to spend time with his uncle. The only problem was, he didn't really want to be alone with his uncle yet; that could lead to more in depth conversations he wasn't sure he was ready to have; and Doc was busy helping at the hospital, and Warren wanted to murder Steve, but George seemed to be supportive of this, and Addy was warming up to the older man, so they were his best option. ...Plus, he valued their opinions.
“Sounds more like Red than Sarge,” Addy grinned a little, from where she sat on the bed with her older daughter, “Sarge would still kiss your face even if kissing your face would destroy the world.”
"She does kinda think her and I caused the apocalypse, so that's true," he said with a laugh, "And yeah. It was mostly Red. But if I stay with them you know it'll freak her out, so I'm bored. So I'm here."
"Then you should run," Natasha said, "'Cause they're being boring 'good parents'."
“Ew, good parents are the worst,” 10K made a face of disgust, mixed with a look of amusement.
"See?" Natasha asked Addy with a pointed look, "He gets it."
"I thought you wanted your mom and I to be home more," Addy said with an amused smile.
"Yeah, 'cause I thought we'd be doing something fun. Not sitting around doing nothing." The young girl looked back at her uncle with a sudden mischievous glint in her eyes, "You wanna take me out and teach me to shoot? That would be fun and not boring! You can come, too, uncle's uncle," she added to Steve, "He can teach you to shoot, too. He's a good teacher."
“No!” Addy and George shouted in unison, without skipping a beat, both of them with worried mom looks in their eyes.
"You know now I have to say no, right?" 10K said to the girl with an amused smirk, "Cause you asked me in front of your mom's." Of course, he wouldn't have actually taken Natasha out to learn to shoot. He wasn't that irresponsible. But he enjoyed scaring his sister and sister-in-law a little bit with comments like that.
"Ughhh," Natasha groaned loudly and flopped on her bed, "Well then somebody else come up with something fun to do. Cause I'm bored. And so's uncle 10K. You're making two people bored, I hope you're happy."
“Me, too, I’m bored,” Gwenny huffed, leaning her head back on George’s chest, “The apocalypse is so boring!”
"Three people!" Natasha said, "Uncle, tell them they need to something fun! We can all do something fun together! Let's do something fun together!"
“You need to do something fun,” 10K said to his sister, giving her a look.
Addy studied her brother for a moment and then shared a glance with her wife; they had talked about 10K and his uncle the previous night, and Addy knew her brother well. He didn't want to be with Steve alone. And she was trying to get George to take it easy, helping 10K with this might be a good distraction for her. "Alright, captain Hookless. What do you have in mind?"
“We could kill a man!” Natasha shouted, with a big grin, “I hear it brings people together.”
"No murder!" Addy and George said at the same time.
"You and Sarge need to stop teaching my child to murder," Addy told her brother.
"But murder is fun and sexy," the boy smirked the same way Sarge always did when she talked about murder or anything else violent. God he missed her. And Red. And he'd only been away from them for half an hour.
“Yea, Moms, it’s fun and sexy,” Gwenny agreed with a nod. She didn’t know what sexy was, but she was just gonna agree with her uncle.
"...Okay, let's go do something. But not murder!" Addy said, standing up from the bed, Natasha crawling off to stand next to her mom.
Addy knew her brother needed them with him right now, and she was never one to turn down helping her brother. And this would prove a good distraction for George, too. Helping one person, especially 10K, was a lot easier than helping a whole country.
She walked to the doorway and wrapped an arm around her brother's shoulders, eyeing the older man who had not said a word, before leading the family away from her and George's room. She had no idea what her plan was; just that she needed to make sure both her wife and brother were okay.
Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Sarge was curled up with her wife, feeling absolutely miserable. She had been sick before, of course, she'd been lying about that, but she hadn't been sick in a very long time. Since pre-Z. And she'd forgotten how horrible it was. ...Maybe 10K wasn't exaggerating how much it sucked to be sick in the apocalypse all the time after all.
"...I lied," the young woman mumbled into her wife's shoulder.
"...Hm...?" Red hummed out, having been half asleep when Sarge had mumbled the confession, and just starting to become aware of her surroundings now.
"...I lied," Sarge said again, "I've... Been sick before. Not in a really long time, since pre-Z. But... I have. I just always hid it from Linc and Anna; they had enough shit going on. I was supposed to be strong for them, so they couldn't see me sick. ...I still can't let Anna see me sick. I'm not all she's got anymore, but I still gotta be strong for her, Red."
It was rare for the marine to talk about her pre-Z life, rarer still for her to admit any form of weakness or vulnerability, and Red knew she needed to tread carefully now that Sarge was opening up like this in her sickened state.
"You are strong, baby," Red said, softly, "You are the strongest person I've ever known. And on top of being strong as hell, you're also very sexy. That makes you better than everyone else in the world. And Anna knows that. You can be strong for her, but you don't have to be. She'll be okay if you take a break. She, and I, for that matter, would rather you take a break than collapse of exhaustion. It's okay to be strong. But we don't need you to be strong all of the time. "
"I do need to be strong, though. I know you don't need me to all the time, but... She watched all her friends die. She watched Linc die. And I know she's as scared as you are about 10K all the time. ...I don't wanna scare her more than she already is. She doesn't act like it, but she is; I know she is. I can't add to that."
"She's going to be okay, Sarge. She's strong, too. I don't know if you realize it. She can handle some fear. What she can't handle is losing you."
"I know... I know," Sarge nodded slightly, "I just want to protect her. And it's probably too late for me to really protect her but that's why I gotta make sure she knows I got her. ...Maybe I just feel weird cause of Steve showing up and bringing back some pre-Z shit. I don't know. I just... Gotta be okay for her. Which means I can't be sick."
Just then, there was a knock at the doorway. It was El, who hadnt actually gone to check on her daughter, or on Dustin, but to see Sarge. Because she knew how important the girl was to Hop, and that made her important to El, too. So she thought it was time she checked in herself, rather than send her daughter.
“Oh… hey,” Sarge said, awkwardly, as she noticed the woman standing in the doorway. She sat up a little more properly beside her wife. Yes, she was sick. Maybe she was dying. But that didn’t mean she shouldn’t have a little respect for the woman who may or might not have been her surrogate pre-Z sister.
Sarge wasn’t the type of person who had respect for anyone. She would be blatantly disrespectful and bite a person’s ear off if they looked at her wrong. The only person she truly respected in this apocalypse was Lieutenant Roberta Warren.
But the only person she truly respected before the apocalypse was Chief of Police, James Hopper. Hop. And maybe it had been eight years since she had laid eyes on the man, but El was the first person she had seen in eight years that meant as much to Hop as she did. And in her book, that earned her a bit of respect.
"...Hi," El said with a small, slightly awkward smile, "You don't have to sit up for me," she added. She knew how stubborn the girl was about never being sick; Hop had told her about one time he'd had to forcibly take Lilly to the hospital when Steve called him because she came back with Madeline from school and passed out from the flu. So she wasn't going to bring up the fact that the girl was sick now; not if she didn't have to.
She did, however, make her way over to the bed and sit on the edge next to the redhead, "I, um, don't know if Lee - my daughter - ever gave you my message. That... If there's anything you want to talk to Hop about, I can help."
“Oh,” Sarge nodded, “Uh... she told me. I just... I’ve been hanging out with my wife. Uh, this is my wife, Red Mueller. Uh, babe, this is... Eleven. Hop’s daughter.”
“Nice to meet you,” Red gave El a small smile, “I’d shake your hand but you don’t want whatever we have.”
"I'm a mom," El laughed slightly, "I'm sure I've dealt with almost every contagious disease by now. It's nice to meet you, too Red."
El was possibly the first person who Red had met didn't even give so much as a second glance at the young woman's name being a color. Of course, her name was a number, but still, Red couldn't help but smile at the fact that the older woman didn't seem to find her name even slightly odd.
"There's no hurry," El then told Sarge, "I can talk to Hop anytime. And I think we're going to be here for a while now that we finally found all of you, so you have time. I just wanted to make sure you knew you could talk to him. If you want. I know how close you were; he's been worried about you."
“... Is he coming?” Sarge asked, even though she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer, “When the rest of your family comes, is he coming?”
Red took her wife’s hand in hers, in an attempt to soothe her anxiety.
"No," El shook her head, a little sadly, "He and Joyce are in the cabin. They're safe, but they weren't with us when it all happened. It was safer for them to stay where they were. ...But if we stay here, maybe then they can come."
"... Oh," Sarge nodded, looking a little disappointed, "... Okay."
Red gave her wife's hand a gentle squeeze. She couldn't understand what it was like to misa someone from her old life. Her old life sucked. But Sarge's didn't. It was kind of strange to think about someone's life being good before the apocalypse.
“We’ll find a way for you to see him again,” El reassured the girl with a gentle smile, “I promise. ...If he knows we’re all here, he might just come on his own without us even asking. You know how he is.”
“If he didn’t leave that stupid cabin for his own family, he’s not going to leave it for me,” Sarge said, leaning back against her pillow, “I’m sick. You should leave. I need rest.”
"...He didn't leave before because I told him not to. I didn't need him like that, and I thought you were dead and there was nothing he could do for you. But if he knows you're alive, he'll come for you, Lilly. He always cared about you. So if you want to be mad about it, I understand, but be mad at me. Not him." She knew she was pushing it here, especially if the girl just admitted to being sick to try and get rid of her, but it was important that Lilly knew that Hop didn't abandon her in the apocalypse.
Sarge didn’t say anything, her eyes averted away from Eleven.
“... I think you should go,” Red said, gently, to the woman. She didn’t know exactly what had happened, but she knew that her wife was upset. And it was her job to not let her wife be upset.
"...Okay," the woman nodded, a little sadly, standing up from the bed, "Okay. ...Lilly, you can find me when you're ready. Take your time," then she turned her attention to the girl's wife, giving her a slight smil, "It was nice to meet you, Red."
As the woman left, Red wrapped an arm around Sarge's waist, hugging her close, reassuring, "...You okay?"
“I’m fine,” Sarge muttered, her eyes cast downward, looking towards her lap.
"...You don't have to be," Red said, not trying to push the other woman to talk, but trying to reassure her that even if she didn't want to talk about it, it was okay if she was upset.
“I’m okay,” Sarge repeated, sounding slightly agitated.
"Okay," Red nodded, not wanting to upset her wife further and deciding to let it go for now, instead curling up against her, "...Maybe we should get some sleep...?"
“Fine,” She shrugged and wrapped her arm around her wife.
Meanwhile things were going considerably better with 10K and his uncle, who were now joined by his sister, sister-in-law, and two nieces. It put a lot less pressure on the two men to have Addy and her family there, which they were grateful for (especially 10K; he wasn't ready to tell his uncle everything that had happened to him yet. He didn't want the man to look at him differently).
Addy had, of course, made it very clear to her brother than she would get him out of this at any point if he wanted her to.
“So, Uncle’s Uncle, you ever kill a man with your bare hands?” Natasha asked, out of the blue, totally random, unprompted.
“Natasha--!” George’s eyes went wide at her daughter’s question.”
